Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has finalized its plans for the DLJ Merchant Banking Partners [DLJMB] business. Thirty DLJ staff, led by Steven Rattner, will remain at CSFB to manage DLJMB’s existing portfolio of companies and lead future investment efforts.
In future, DLJMB will focus on middle market buy-outs, selective minority investments in larger buyout transactions, and growth capital and structured equity investments.
Thompson Dean, the current Managing Partner of DLJMB, will leave CSFB around mid-year. He plans to establish a new private equity firm called Avista Capital Partners, and several DLJMB investment professionals plan to join him at the new firm. Dean and his team will continue to work with CSFB as consultants to assist in monitoring a number of the existing DLJMB portfolio companies.
“With the large, experienced DLJMB team in place, CSFB is very well-positioned to execute the strategy we announced in December – building a private equity business that is central to CSFB while seeking to minimize direct competition with our largest financial sponsor clients,” explains Brian Finn, President of CSFB and Global Head of the Alternative Capital Division. “The structure of the business we announced today will ensure that we maximize the value of DLJMB’s existing investments for our limited partners and continue the success of the DLJMB funds well into the future. We are grateful to Tom and the professionals who are joining him for their contributions to the success of DLJMB, and we wish them much success in their new endeavors at Avista.”
Since 1985, DLJMB has invested more than $9 billion in more than 140 portfolio companies. It remains the largest business within CSFB’s Alternative Capital Division, which has more than $38 billion of assets under management, including $21 billion of private equity assets across a diverse family of funds, including leveraged buyout funds, mezzanine funds, real estate funds, venture capital funds, fund of funds and secondary funds, and more than $17 billion of other alternative assets through its hedge fund (both direct and fund of funds), leveraged loan and CDO investment programmes.